Edgar Degas Research Essay 1
Paula Pearson
Kurt Dyrhaug / Meredith Jack
Art Appreciation _Essay 1
7/8/2013
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas was both a man and an artist of contradictions. The French artist, paint err, and sculptor Edgar Degas was born on July 19, 1834 in Paris, France. Degas died September 27, 1917 in Paris, France. Degas is associated historically with the Impressionists because of his concentration on scenes of contemporary life and he never painted outdoors and rarely depicted landscape and also his desire to capture the transitory moment. Degas surpassed other impressionists in compositional sense; his use of vibrant expressive color became his primary concern in his late works. Degas was one of the first to understand and creatively use the new pictorial possibilities offered by photography and Japanese prints. With that being said, in describing the physical characteristics of one of Degas’s most famous still life paintings, was titled “Woman with Chrysanthemums”, painted in the year 1865. The medium used was oil on canvas and the scale was 29”x 361/2”. The subject is a female figure depicted sitting at the right side of a table with a bouquet of flowers in the center and also a glass pitcher of water with gloves placed beside the glass pitcher. The painting is objective, and it is because the huge bouquet of flowers opens the viewer’s eye and draws one into the still life painting dominating almost overshadowing the figure. As an artist Degas utilized several major elements of art in his still life famous painting, “Woman with Chrysanthemums”, therefore, one of the major elements utilized was use Lines. Degas utilized lines in his painting of the table and the open window at the right side of the painting. A second element of art utilized in this painting was the use Color. Degas uses bright spots of color in the bouquet, yellow, red, and specifically white, mostly the general coloring of the painting was subdued, with shades of brown being the predominate coloring.
Kurt Dyrhaug / Meredith Jack
Art Appreciation _Essay 1
7/8/2013
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas was both a man and an artist of contradictions. The French artist, paint err, and sculptor Edgar Degas was born on July 19, 1834 in Paris, France. Degas died September 27, 1917 in Paris, France. Degas is associated historically with the Impressionists because of his concentration on scenes of contemporary life and he never painted outdoors and rarely depicted landscape and also his desire to capture the transitory moment. Degas surpassed other impressionists in compositional sense; his use of vibrant expressive color became his primary concern in his late works. Degas was one of the first to understand and creatively use the new pictorial possibilities offered by photography and Japanese prints. With that being said, in describing the physical characteristics of one of Degas’s most famous still life paintings, was titled “Woman with Chrysanthemums”, painted in the year 1865. The medium used was oil on canvas and the scale was 29”x 361/2”. The subject is a female figure depicted sitting at the right side of a table with a bouquet of flowers in the center and also a glass pitcher of water with gloves placed beside the glass pitcher. The painting is objective, and it is because the huge bouquet of flowers opens the viewer’s eye and draws one into the still life painting dominating almost overshadowing the figure. As an artist Degas utilized several major elements of art in his still life famous painting, “Woman with Chrysanthemums”, therefore, one of the major elements utilized was use Lines. Degas utilized lines in his painting of the table and the open window at the right side of the painting. A second element of art utilized in this painting was the use Color. Degas uses bright spots of color in the bouquet, yellow, red, and specifically white, mostly the general coloring of the painting was subdued, with shades of brown being the predominate coloring.